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Your College Major May Not Be As Important As You Think

By Zac Bissonnette November 3, 2010 11:24 amNovember 3, 2010 11:24 am

Here’s an excerpt from a letter that an indignant father sent to his son after hearing that he had opted for an impractical major:

I am appalled, even horrified, that you have adopted Classics as a major. As a matter of fact, I almost puked on my way home today. … I am a practical man, and for the life of me I cannot possibly understand why you should wish to speak Greek. With whom will you communicate in Greek? …

I suppose you will feel that you are distinguishing yourself from the herd by becoming a Classical snob. … I think you are rapidly becoming a jackass, and the sooner you get out of that filthy atmosphere, the better it will suit me.

The reaction of Ted Turner’s father, who wrote that letter to his son, years before he founded CNN, is pretty typical.

Many students encounter tremendous pressure from their parents to adopt “practical” majors, and I’ve talked to a handful of students whose parents flatly refused to provide for their educational expenses unless they majored in something career-oriented.

With less than half of recent college graduates landing jobs that require a college degree, this concern is understandable. But it’s misguided. In recent years, research into the importance of choice of major has led to a surprising conclusion: it’s really not all that important.

To wit: A University of Texas at Austin professor, Daniel Hamermesh, researched career earnings data sorted by choice of major and concluded that:

Perceptions of the variations in economic success among graduates in different majors are exaggerated. Our results imply that given a student’s ability, achievement and effort, his or her earnings do not vary all that greatly with the choice of undergraduate major.

Ramit Sethi, a blogger and the author of “I Will Teach You to Be Rich” is also a fan of “impractical majors.” He studied in the Sciences, Technology, and Society Program at Stanford.

“I never thought of my university education as technical training. If it was, why wouldn’t I just go to ITT Tech?” he said in an e-mail, adding:

Where else will you get four years to intellectually challenge yourself and learn subjects in university-level depth? In fact, pair a ‘weird’ major with summer internships and interesting projects and you’ve got a leg up on the typical 3.5-G.P.A., by-the-book student. I majored in an obscure major — S.T..S — and I use my background in social influence, persuasion and behavioral change every day of running my own company.

To be sure: if a student wants to be an engineer or an accountant, those are fine majors. But don’t think that you are doomed to a life of poverty if you pick the wrong major. There are at least four great reasons to pick a liberal arts major:

Most people will graduate with higher G.P.A.’s if they study something they are passionate about. High G.P..A’s help graduates land jobs, and there is a fairly strong correlation between class rank and career earnings. Great grades also help with graduate school admissions, and the rigors of liberal arts often lead to better performance on the G.M.A.T. and L.S.A.T. than other majors.

One study found that economics majors achieve the best scores of anyone on the G.M.A.T., meaning that students interested in M.B.A.’s are probably better pursuing an economics major than a finance major.

There is a disconnect between students’ perceptions of what employers want and what employers actually want, according to a survey described in an article in Canadian HR Reporter, which reported: “Most employers cite communication skills as the most important skill for a candidate to possess, while generation Y (aged 18 to 35) believe employers are looking for experience, found the survey by Toronto’s George Brown College.”

If your goal is to develop written and verbal communications skills, a finance major may not be the best bet.

Transferability of skills. It’s become a cliché that the best jobs of tomorrow don’t even exist today. Such is life in a rapidly changing, technology-driven global economy. Remember all those television ads for training in VCR repair that suddenly stopped running a few years ago? That’s the potential risk of a major that places job training ahead of mind development.

Most importantly, majoring in something that interests you is just the obvious thing to do. You’ll have more fun, have a richer experience and be less likely to dropout if you are actually passionate about what you’re studying.

Now, here’s my message for parents: Relax about your children’s choice of major, and realize that their abilities, work ethic and passion will ultimately lead them to a fine destination.

The point of this article may have been true decades ago, and maybe even during the last boom cycle, but it simply is not true today. Not even remotely. Decades ago, corporations would hire Classics/History/English/etc majors for entry level jobs. Today, most entry level corporate jobs require 1-2 years’ experience at some other corporation, or have been moved offshore.

As my handle indicates, I am an unemployed attorney, in a major non-NYC northeastern market. I have been searching for work far and wide, both in and out of the legal profession. A few incontrovertible truths exist:

– true entry-level jobs do not exist anymore. There are simply too many people with experience who are presently un/underemployed for corporations to ignore. When on open job listing gets 400 or 500 applications, the inexperienced and the folk w/o background in that industry/role are the first to be ignored. One’s major plays an important role in this process.

– Along these lines, corporations no longer want to train people for their jobs. I have heard this over and over from recruiters and HR reps from corporations in a variety of fields. This is a major change from decades past. New hires are expected to hit the ground running on the first morning, without input or training from superiors. HR staff weed through CV’s accordingly, and so it is now very difficult for an English major to land a job as a financial analyst or accounts receivable drone.

– most early career positions do require specific majors, usually Economics/Finance/Accounting/Biz Admin/Statistics. Spend ten minutes on monster/careerbuilder/experience/Craigs List; this trend will become quite obvious.

I think that colleges are aware, at least implicitly, of these trends. My NESCAC alma mater proudly trumpets that more than 70% of its graduates in the last ten years have pursued advanced degrees. They frame this as proof of the intellectual curiousity of its students. Perhaps it does to some extent, but I think it more realistically frames the current utility of a liberal arts degree from a non-Williams/Amherst/Wellesley institution.*

*I note these three colleges because they possess a Harvard-like ability to send their graduates to the major financial and consulting firms of the world. This ability is severely lacking if you go to, say, Bates or Trinity.

Today high school seniors and college freshmen are being told to major in science. I heard the same call some 35 years ago. I majored in biology and minored in chemistry under the mistaken impression that I would find a decent job. I loved most of the courses I took and, once I did get a start in the field of biological research, loved my work. However, what I found was this: I didn’t need a college degree to do this work. A solid high school education would have done just as well. Not only that, the industries that claimed we were so short of science majors had absolutely no interest in hiring any of us once we graduated. They wanted the quantity in order to keep down the salaries.

I would tell any student going to college today to major in what they love. Forget about what industry says. They want to increase the quantity of graduates so as to pay less to those they hire. Furthermore, if you have the desire and interest in learning a trade, do that instead. You’ll probably be employed for life since we will always need master carpenters, good auto mechanics, plumbers, electricians, and so on.

I know so many teens whose parents are insisting they major in business. The plumber who came to our house yesterday (and collected a hefty check) told me that he graduated from a four-year university with a business degree, and worked in marketing — until the economy tanked.

I think it’s important to recognize that the disconnect you cite is not between students perceptions and what employers want, but what they _say_ they want in a self-reported survey. These might well be quite different things. Good communications skills is about as neutral (and subjective) a requirement as one could ask for; few people will fill out a survey and say the quality they most look for in new hires is someone young, single, and willing to work lots of unpaid overtime, for instance.

It doesn’t matter what you major in, but it matters where you try to get a job. Study Classics, or French Lit, or the proverbial Basket Weaving, but BY ALL MEANS TRY TO GET A SUMMER JOB AND/OR INTERNSHIP AT A FORTUNE 500 COMPANY. They don’t really care what you study. But when you get out, they will care where you’ve worked.

So, keep in mind the ‘follow your heart’ advice isn’t bad when it comes to studies, but ‘follow your head’ is just as good when it comes to work.

My philosophy major makes me want to attend class everyday. I never look at the clock hoping class is almost over and my classmates always spark insightful discussions. While many people that focus solely on practicality may disagree, a liberal arts major gives you an incredible foundation for a good future.

Something makes me hesitate to take seriously life/career advice from a young undergrad …

“One study found that economics majors achieve the best scores of anyone on the G.M.A.T., meaning that students interested in M.B.A.’s are probably better pursuing an economics major than a finance major.”

No, this does not mean that someone with no aptitude for econ will do better than most on the GMAT because they toiled through an econ major. It means that students predisposed to study economics are predisposed to do well on the GMAT.

It’s easy to point to the Ted Turners (or Bill Gates’ and Michael Dells), but they are exceptions rather than the rule. Is it an absolute that one major in a particular field in order to have a career in that same field? No, but it greatly increases one’s chances. If you’re planning (key word) on a particular career, then choose what will give you an advantage in this competitive world. (If you’re entertaining accounting, engineering, or medicine — should you opt for art history?) If you have no direction whatsoever, then choose what you like. Just be prepared for the consequences. (Just how well do you like to eat?)

The problems you cite are a product of the current high level of unemployment. They are very real problems, and affect quite a few recent college graduates as well as the recently unemployed, but none of them would be avoided by a different undergraduate major. The plain truth is a BA in Business does not equal experience, and as far as internships go (which do count as a little bit of experience) you don’t have to be a Business major to get one. Yes, the professional “number cruncher” jobs require a lot of experience in math, but if you don’t at all enjoy that in college, you will really hate life when that becomes your career. In short, technical careers require technical training, business management is not a technical field. The skills needed there (beyond the luck involved in getting your first job) are skills that are just as readily learned in any liberal arts degree: understanding and working with people, and the ability to communicate clearly in speech and in writing.

The premise and research are incorrect. The conclusion is off mark by a wide margin. If the filed of study was useless then the whole degree experience was useless. The society is dealing with inflation of qualifications. This means that convenience store employee clerks need a college degree but the job hasn’t changed enough in 40 years to justify such a college experience. Don’t say computers b/c kids today are born playing with computers.

If one isn’t learning hard useful skills that are needed in the market place then one is wasting time if the college education has a price tag.

In our case the youngling’s education will be provided provided hard core useful skills are learned. We narrowed the choice of majors down to a tiny tiny list. And we mean tiny!!!

We will not allow ourselves to be suckers in a system that prides itself on selling dreams, so called opportunities that in fact are nothing but mirages or figments in some college administrator’s mind!

Nothing is as important as you think when you’re hungry, jobless, and on the verge of homelessneess… which, given the prospects for job creation and economic growth, are unfortunate strong possibilities.

Sorry to rain on th parade… but perhaps a trade or military service may afford a young person 3 squares a day and some potential for the future. We don’t need millions more programmers, lawyers, MBAs, etc… and there are no real options for most of those who choose those professions anyway.

College age young adults need to get real and make a choice and follow it through.

A liberal arts education is a wonderful thing for those lucky enough to have access to it and creative enough to take full advantage of the opportunities offered.

Of course, one needs to be practical, but to require a “youngling” to select majors from a “tiny” range seems counterproductive — why bother with the college education at all if one insists upon an extremely narrow outcome???? An undergraduate major is not the only way to attain useful career skills while at college; often, the major is not even the best way. If one is attending a residential liberal arts college, those colleges usually supply numerous opportunities for attaining technical skills outside of a standard class experience, while classes foster strong, critical and creative thinking. It’s a dynamite combination which can be extremely useful if pursued cleverly.

Robert #10 sounds like Ted Turner’s dad. Good thing for Ted that he was a rebel.

Totally agree. I majored in Latin American Studies, a subject I loved, especially because it allowed me to take small classesn and get to know my professors (a big deal at the enormous university I attended) and study abroad in Chile for a year.

I now live and work in China, which does not directly relate to my degree.

I think more people should study (and do!) what they actually like rather than what they “should” do.

My university professor father insisted we all studied what we loved- he sees so many people come through his department who have been forced into a ‘practical’ science like his subject when it’s not their passion. they scrape by with poor degrees. 4 years is a long time to live out your parents dreams and will end in disappointment for everyone. my classics degree has never been a problem- i graduated 4 years ago and have a great job in financial services, despite the recession.

I think you see college as an assembly line, and your kid as a peg to be molded to fit a particular hole — a limited number of “acceptable” majors designed to prepare him/her for an acceptable job. The problem with this is you don’t know what jobs will be available in the future. I worked at a school of engineering, and remember well times when these kids came in when jobs were plentiful, and graduated at a time when jobs were nonexistent (remember nuclear engineers?). And what about all those accounting majors — where do they go when the market turns?

I spent years looking for people who could write — I didn’t care what their majors were. Also looked for people who could think independently, analyze problems, and come up with solutions. I could teach them the technical info they needed, but I couldn’t teach the ability to communicate and analyze. Loved philosophy majors for that reason! Also know kids who majored in Medieval LIt, American Studies, Art History, and, yes, Classics who now have jobs in consulting, financial services, marketing, and law, and who are doing very well financially.

The gift I gave my own two kids was the freedom to explore all the disciplines that were out there and to chose a major that excited them. There’s no other time in their lives that they could do this. And, both are employed and happy 5-6 years from graduation.

The statement of #10 is an obvious fallacy. The comparison is not among majors, but between a college degree or no college. Any major pursued rigorously will inculcate skills in critical thinking, analysis, research, writing, argument, and the experience of depth and new frontiers in a field. In the American system, moreover, only about a third of a student’s coursework is in the major; the rest may be chosen from a great variety of subjects that also provide context and skills.

College is an important experience, but only one of many steps to building a life and a working career. Several posters exhibit a sad preoccupation with the idea that only certain institutions and courses provide a doorway to opportunity, or that these guarantee success. Nothing could be further than the truth. Look at the roster of any group of CEOs or physicians at a leading hospital medical practice. Their undergraduate institutions will largely be public universities or colleges you have never heard of. But these individuals will have identified and pursued their interests, and after college pursued the further effort, education, and experience to foster their careers.

This article represents yet another “case for” the general liberal arts education. “We teach students how to think”. How enriching. You need to understand what you are studying, what the outcome can be in terms of employment….in order to weigh the decision of how much and whether to take on debt that college entails for so many, if not most. If Dad or Mom runs a successful business, as Ted Turner’s dad did, what you study won’t matter – you are a member of the so-called “lucky sperm” club. If its merit and independence that define the pavement of your career path, you better darn well use those college years preparing to deliver something tangible that employers will pay for in the market, both through academic work and internships. Terrible article premise and completely out-of-touch with reality in a globalizing, automating marketplace.

Only one poster mentioned the most important variable of all…..luck. I am retired now but I spent most of my work life as a tool and die maker. It is a trade that requires a vast body of knowledge and is completely objective. Your personality does not mean zip nor does your ability to speak well. What was the planning that put me into this? There wasn’t any. I happened to look into the machine shop at my trade school one day and thought it looked like fun. Nearly every good thing that happened to me career wise since then has been just plain luck. Few want to admit this.

Of course I came up in the golden age when jobs were plentiful. I feel pity for those kids today for the God awful prospects they face.

I am an engineering professor in a small department of a southwest public university. Engineering is not for everyone, and while we typically have freshman classes of 30 or more, our average graduatation rate is about 15. Last year we only had 10. All either proceeded to a good job or gradaute school. Two of those going to graduate school were awared National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships; $41,000/year for three years. The others got regular research assistantships that cover their cost of education and living expenses. Of the those going to industry, the low salary was in the 50’s, while two had starting salaries on $90,000. Our major counts.

I graduated with a Classics degree and it was the best thing I ever did. The reason the US education system is the finest in the world, is because of the liberal arts college system.

The rest of the world assembly lines their kids into their professions, based on high school aptitude and preferences — thus they lack the maturity and depth to really push the boundaries of their chosen profession at the graduate level. That’s just my opinion.

When I did decide to go to medical school, I was able to graduate 4th in my class, because I was ready and dedicated, at that point in my life. If I had been a bio/chem major and had gone straight through, I would probably have lacked the maturity/drive/discipline to even get into medical school, because I would have been doing soely what my Indian (British system) parents wanted and were used to.

My friends made fun of me all through college for having the least employable major and then tailoring it in an even more obscure way. It actually became a running joke. I studied linguistics and focused all my research (all term papers and my thesis) on onomastics, the study of names. But I didn’t care. I loved every minute it. It wasn’t about getting a job.

And then sometimes you get lucky. As fate would have it, I was the first of my friends to land a job after graduation. Doing what? I research the ethnicites of names for a marketing software company. So it turns out that the world does need linguistics majors, and specifically onomasticians. You just never know.

I agree with commenter #13. This was a great article. I was also forced into majoring in something practical in college, so I majored in chemical engineering. It was a very bad idea and my mediocre grades had an adverse impact on my law school applications. I think that a liberal arts education provides a good foundation and that it is beneficial to take classes such as antropology, sociology, and psychology.